A man described as being about 60 years old was struck and killed by an Amtrak train Friday in Chatsworth, fire officials said. The man was struck around 8:45 a.m. near the 10800 block of North Santa Susana Pass Road, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Katherine Main. No other injuries were reported. She said the tracks were initially shut down as four fire companies and an ambulance were deployed to the scene. Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said the Pacific Surfliner train with about 250 passengers aboard was northbound with a maximum expected speed of about 60 mph in the area when it stuck what she called an "individual trespasser.

Sometime between "Harry Potter" and her current film "Noah," actress Emma Watson, 23, found time to qualify as a meditation and yoga instructor, she tells Elle Australia . The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has mounted a new exhibition extolling Italian style, “The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945-2014.” The opening-night cocktail party and dinner Tuesday included guests Rita Ora, Elizabeth McGovern, Tom Ford ...

The brother of a Palmdale man allegedly killed by three transients last year while hopping freight trains and riding the rails in search of adventure told a local news station he wants his sibling to be remembered for chasing his dreams, not for being a victim. In an interview with Sacramento's Fox 40 , Josh Alpert said his 19-year-old brother, John, was realizing their shared aspiration of temporarily living “off the grid” and train hopping when he was killed in Roseville, Calif., in March 2013.

The Lakers are planning to build a more modern training facility that they hope will also attract future free agents, The Times has learned. They will stay in El Segundo because they like the area and its proximity to LAX, but will no longer share a building with the Kings and a skating rink often open for public use. The Lakers have been at the place currently known as Toyota Sports Center since 2000, which was built for about $24 million by...

A 19-year-old seeking adventure by hopping freight trains and riding the rails was killed by three transients who were also riding illegally on the trains, Roseville, Calif., police said. Detectives last week announced they had arrested three train hoppers -- two men and a woman -- in connection with the March 2013 killing of John Paul Alpert of Palmdale. Alpert attended community college and left his family to go on a “first-time adventure” by hopping aboard trains and riding the rails across California, police said.

Georges St-Pierre, who vacated the UFC welterweight title after a controversial win over Johny Hendricks in November, has torn the anterior-cruciate ligament in his left knee during a training session. The former mixed martial arts champion from Montreal tweeted about the injury. He also said that he'd return to training when he's recovered from surgery. No word yet on when he plans to return to the octagon. Tore my left ACL in training. Surgery in a few days. Rehab, pain, hard work, no shortcuts- I'll soon be back at 100%.

Strangers on a train, played to perfection by Emmanuelle Devos and Gabriel Byrne, are destined for a brief encounter, Parisian-style, in "Just a Sigh. " The blah title suggests bad middle-school poetry (the original French, " Le Temps de l'aventure ," at least has energy), but the film is a bracingly romantic drama that's alive with a mature sense of passion and mystery. Devos, a performer with a singular, sometimes off-putting combination of abrasiveness and fragility, is riveting as Alix, an actress.

Regularly scheduled service on California's bullet train system will not meet anticipated trip times of two hours and 40 minutes between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and are likely to take nearly a half-hour longer, a state Senate committee was told Thursday. The faster trips were held out to voters in 2008 when they approved $9 billion in borrowing to help pay for the project. Since then, a series of political compromises and planning changes designed to keep the $68-billion line moving ahead have created slower track zones in urban areas.

PHOENIX - Angels fans won't have Joe Blanton to kick around anymore. The Angels released the struggling and oft-criticized right-hander on Wednesday and ate the remaining $8.5 million on his contract, a move that was probably more difficult for General Manager Jerry Dipoto to digest than Blanton. "It's regrettable, it's a mistake on my part, there's no one else to blame," said Dipoto, who signed Blanton to a two-year, $15-million deal before 2013. "I made the call on signing Joe Blanton, and obviously this isn't the way he or I wanted it to work out. Unfortunately, that's the way it goes sometimes.

The driver of a Chicago subway train that crashed at O'Hare International Airport told authorities that she fell asleep before the train entered the station, derailed and raced up an escalator, the NTSB announced Wednesday. She didn't wake up until the Blue Line train had nearly reached the bumper at the station, NTSB investigator-in-charge Ted Turpin said during a televised news conference Wednesday morning. The eight-car train eventually smashed into the bumper, apparently launching the train onto the platform.